Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-08-13
HORROR OF HORRORS.
's
A Double Header Excursion Train Run.
ming at q Mile q Minute Wrecked
and Burned.
More Than One Hundred People Killed
in the Crush-HarrOwing
Scenes.
A Terrible Ca,ostrophe.

A Terrible Catastrophe.
CHArswoRTH, ILL.,, August lit was a
wild throng which surrounded the Union
depot in Peoria this morning. News. of the
wreck of the Niagara excursion train, tif-
teen coaches and two engines at Vermillion
bridge, had spread like wild fire. Four hun
dred excursionists form Peoria, Canton,
Eureka and other places, many of them
well known and highly respected through.
out Central Illinois ere aboard
ALL SORTS OF RUMoRs
were floating around, and the number
killed we're variously estimated at from
sixty to one hundred. At all stations
along the line large crowds had gathered to
hear the latest from Peoria. Some wild
rumors prevailed, bat nothing OF an au-
relief train reached it's destination, when a
SAD AND CHASTITY SIGHT WAS
brought to view; ten coaches bad either
gone through the bridge or were piled in
a promiscuous heap crosswise and length
wise of the track. Shrieks and groans OF
the wounded and dying could be heard.
The bridge through which the cars went
was small one. 1t had been on fire which
was the cause OF its breaking. So far over
seventy bodies have been recovered. They
were conveyed to the town hall, school
house and to the depot platform. No one
has been taken from under the cars and
u h. L@~ <1>1srn
1t is feared all are dead, and the number
killed are estimated at 200. The wounded
so far number $50.
THE FOLLOWING ARE KILLED.
Ed. McCintock, Peoria; engineer, aged
38. Leaves wife and two children.
Mrs VIM. Ball.
Susie Ball.
Miss Pearl Adams.
VIM. Regan.
Mr.. French.
Phena Frahm.
Mrs. Valentine.
Mrs. Valdezo and daughter.
Mrs. Zimmerman.
Fred Weinett and daughter Pearl, OF
Peoria.
Mrs. Kate Cress, Washington.
Cora Smith, Peoria, fatally injured. All
THE BODIES RECOVERED NUMBERED 10.
Everyt thing is the widest confusion, and
many are mangled beyond recognition.
The cars were found to be completely
crushed and covered with blood with here
and there a crushed human frame or a
broken bone. Instantly the air was filled
with the cries of the wounded and the
shrieks OF those about to die. The groans
of men, the screams of women united to
make an appalling sound, and above all
could be heard
THE AGoNIzlNG VAIL OF LITTLE CHILDREN.
In some instances they lay pinned along
eide of their dead parents, and there was
another terrible danger yet to be met. The
bridge was still burning, and the wrecked
cars were lying around the fercly burning
embers Everywhere in the wreck were the
wounded and the unhurt, men, women and
children, whose lives could be saved ii
they could be gotten out, but whose
death in most horrible form was cert ain
if the twisted wood OF the broken cars
caught fire, and to fight the fire there WAS
not a drop OF water, and only some fifty
able bodied men who had still presence OF
mind and nerve enough to do their duty.
A DOCTORS STATEMENT.
| DR.. Hazen, of Fort Madison, Iowa, says
the train was running about thirty miles
p u hour. He felt sudden jar and found
himself md wife fastened under the seats.
| He pulled the backs off two seats before he
could get his wife out. She was bruised on
the body and both feet were mashed.
Her shoulder was dislocated and had
to be pulled into place as soon as
she could get out Of the wreck, and in help.
ing others pulled it out OF place again and
had to have it pulled into place the second
time. There were nine persons in his party
and he can only hear from three OF them al
vet. He says he saw Mr.. E. D. Stoddard
hand his boy out to a lady while he crawle
back to get his wife, who was killed. Tht
town OF Chatsworth was
INTO MORGUE.
to-day. The town hall, the engine hous'
and the depot were all full OF dead bodies
while every house in the little village hat
its Quota OF the wounded. There wer
100 corpses laviny in the extemporizet
dead houses. Every man and woman was
turned into an amateur, but zealOu
nurse. Over in the lumber yard the nois
of hammers and saws rang out on the al
and the busy carpenters were maxim
rough coffins to carry to their homes tn
dead.
| WHEN THE NEWS OF THE DISASTER
was first flashed over the wires prompt al
was at once sent. A special train frot
every city whence the unfortunate excu1
siouists had come and physicians all
friends hurried on to help them. 500
after 8 o'clock in the morning there wei
plenty OF peopleto do the work that neede
prompt attention. In the town hall wa
, the mans hospital and in it anxious rel'
| tives and sorrowful friends sat tanning tf
l suffer ers' faces.
4 DOWN IN THE DEAD HOUSES
I mothers, husbands, brothers, sister
! wives, children, tearfully nspected eat
face as it was uncovered, and sighed as tt
features were unknown or cried out IN a.
puish when the well-known face, fearful
= mans!ed' but vet recognizable, was
r covered. The entire capacity OF the "
s. LACED was taxed, and kind-hearted wem'
o drove in from miles to give their gentle a